ceramic frag plugs in bulk

[msman825]

the guys name is dave in the ebay link i posted. just ask him how much for 500-1000. Are just pm me and i will give you his email addy

 

[gooch]

The clay is cheap. Yes and no. I buy in 1,000 pound quanities. After all said and done it is over $.50 a pound. Packaging is actually expensive as well(boxes,peanuts,labels, bags and shipping). Firing the kiln adds up as well. I do what I can to max out how much I can get in my kiln.......Time is also the biggest factor. I am not going to make them for nothing. It is one thing to make 100 plugs here and there. After you make a few thousand and your arm feels like it is gonna fall off it is not so much fun anymore. Plus you have to remember they are being sold to a retailer that also must make money on them. I think the price quoted from Larry must have been the disks.

If you guys knew how much/little I actually make per 1000 you would probably be suprised. I figured it out one day and after adding up my time to make the plug, fire the plug, pack the plug and ship the plug I do not even make $8.00 an hour.

I do have a bulk pack that I sell to Coral Farmers. But they must have a business and they can not resell them. If I sold them directly to hobbyists at a discount my vendors would drop me pretty fast and I just do not have the time to make them and retail them. I am working on increasing production to hopefully take on more vendors. But if I undercut my vendors just to make a quick buck it would be pretty crappy in my book.

I still do not know why people think it is so hard to remove the shaft from the plug. On the disk I can snap it off with my fingers. A bone cutter, wire cutter at the base of the shaft pops them off easily. To me I would much rather have that than a plug that crumbles in my hand. But everyone has there likes and dislikes.

Gooch

 

[chadfarmer]

i understand what you are saying gooch

i just dont want to buy 10, 50 packs an would just rather buy 500

BAF it is than

 

[gooch]

Hey no problem. It just bafles me how or why any vendor would carry/sell BAF plugs when they know that the manufacturer is selling them for less than they sell them for. I know if I was a store there is no way I would go for that.

Just My Opinion.

Gooch

 

[gooch]

I will.

PS Gooch... next time you talk to Fahz at The Filter Guys make sure to tell him how much we talk about him over here and that he might as well be a sponsor. :hammer: (J/K of course)

 

[Abq Custom]

I just started fragging so I've been thinking alot about this.
I plan on doing it this weekend, I've got some fragging to do.

I figured out a way to do them for about .07 each or less with NO FIRING

1.Go to the local tile stores and buy a 12x12 inch square of 3/4 inch tiles.=144

2. Make sure to get unpolished white or off white MARBLE, not ceramic.
cost is 8ish bucks for the square. Sometimes less if there is a damaged sheet. The marble won't leech and is made of mostly calcium.

3. The local dollar store has plastic hangers about 3/8 inch thick.
Cut these into 3/4 inch pieces for the base. 20 hangers for $1.00

4. local dollar store also has super glue gel 3 tube for $1.00

The tile square have a mesh backing, which I would leave, I think it will help to ease snapping off the base when I'm ready.

Glue base pieces to individual tiles and SLAM!!!-- 144 frag plugs for $10.00

I will post pictures as soon as possible.

 

[d.grcich]

I would like to see how those turn out.

 

[impur]

I'm considering doing some ceramic plugs for my local club. One of our members is going to make it a project for her class, so the kids will be making a bunch of them, having fun and using their creativity while still keeping these functional. So i think they could make quite a few. I'm interested to see what they come up with!

gooch maybe you can help me here. I'll be supplying the clay, and I was curious what kind of clay is used?

 

[patedship]

I am assuming it is just regular pot throwing clay.

 

[impur]

There are high fire and low fire clays. There are stoneware clays, porcelain clays, earthenware clays, kaolin, ball clay, fireclays, slip clay, bentonite...Its dizzying the amt of clays.

 

[twon8]

after july 1 i'll have access to a retort, so i;ll mess around with it a bit

 

[Stixbaraca]

If you guys do make them, keep one design idea in mind I noticed from using a lot of different types of plugs! Make sure the portion you actually attach the frag to with glue is "rough" so it bonds better with the glue! I used some at some point with a smooth top...and it "stunk"!

 

[minibowmatt]

you need to be very careful with wheel and pot clays. Most are very high in soluable metals. Now most will vaporize upon firing, but not all. most have a high content of Iron, which does not fire entirely away. If you can find some of the polymer clays that fire at lower temps, those would be safer to use. There was a big thread on this at zoosRus a year or two ago...

 

[impur]

you need to be very careful with wheel and pot clays. Most are very high in soluable metals. Now most will vaporize upon firing, but not all. most have a high content of Iron, which does not fire entirely away. If you can find some of the polymer clays that fire at lower temps, those would be safer to use. There was a big thread on this at zoosRus a year or two ago...

Thanks for the info! I'll try to track down that thread.

 

[gooch]

Yes, be careful with your clay choice. I took two years of researching before I found one I liked. Sorry I can not tell you what I use.

Scott

 

[gooch]

No, the plugs and rocks coralline up so fast that I feel there is no need to add any more to the plug. Not to mention it would just add to the cost and add another step to the process. They are already probably the most labor intensive plug on the market. These pics are from last week. The corals have not been in the tank very long and already have good amounts of coralline on them. As you can see I use mostly donuts and big uns in my frag tank. I prefer colony sized frags......not to mention I am so back ordered on plugs right now I do not have any I can use for myself.

 

[vetteman]

No, the plugs and rocks coralline up so fast that I feel there is no need to add any more to the plug.

I will agree on that... the frag stations and plugs I have from you cover very quickly... the aragonite type plugs I've used seemed to grow HA more than coralline..... and those "doughnuts" I have not used yet, my wife asked why would anyone make ceramic doggie doo? :hammer:

 

[gooch]

They work great for monti caps, zoanthids and most encrusting type corals. Actually more than a couple of people prefer them. Some people want a more traditional look to the frags they make and they look like rubble once corallined up. Stores that like to chunk out wild corals like these. They just glue the small piece of rock that comes with the frag into the hole and let it encrust over. It is also a nice larger heavier base for corals like caps that may over grow plugs and disks faster than they sell or trade. Who doesn't like a three to four inch frag of something.

My wife thinks they are ugly to. But they work nice. I have seen a lot uglier things.

 

[vetteman]

I've have one donut in my 29g that is starting to coralline up.... I think I'm gonna use it for a acan frag..... never thought about using it as some thing that will get grown over.... great idea

 

[impur]

I've been doing a lot of research on this, and i have 2 local shops that have been asking their supplier etc. I'm heading over to one of the shops this weekend and i think they found a clay that would work for me.

I can't wait to let these gradeschool kids have some fun making these. Their teacher was dissapointed that I could not get anyone to tell me the type of clay. Too bad its been such a long wait. But they have made a lot of templates and prototypes. You should see some of the stuff they came up with, its hilarious! At least it seems they will get to do the project before the year end. Then next year they will get to see them in action, one of the other teachers there is doing this with me and he has 3 tanks in his classroom.

Once i figure out the type of clay i'll post it here and provide some pics. Hopefully next week